December 2015

Q-Step summer internships celebration

(25 November 2015)

Undergraduate students from the Faculty of Humanities were busy during summer 2015, with 48 students from Social Sciences, Law and Linguistics degrees spending eight weeks on paid internships hosted in public, private and third-sector organisations. On 20 November they came together to celebrate their experiences, at an event in the Whitworth Art Gallery.

Paul Redmond, Head of Student Life, launched the event, talking about the changing world of employment that our graduates are entering. The roundtable discussion, ‘What did you do this summer?’ followed, with students and their hosts discussing the data-driven research projects they undertook. The session featured New Economy, AgeUK, College of Policing, Santander, IPPR North and The Home Office. Students talked about their work, which ranged from uncovering the north-south disparity in primary school attainment to looking at the effect of body-worn devices in responding to domestic violence incidences. All the students reported that the experience enhanced employability and research skills, and helped develop confidence in the workplace. The organisations benefited from gaining extra resource to undertake valuable research, and opportunities to provide mentoring, and gain stronger links with the University.

The highlight of the afternoon was the poster session. Students had the opportunity to speak with participants about their work, having each developed a poster as an output from their project. All 48 posters were displayed, providing a fabulous opportunity to showcase the huge range of quantitative analysis that had been achieved in one summer.

The session wrapped up with three speakers addressing the theme of Social Responsibility, highlighting Manchester’s commitment to this goal.

The Q-Step programme is funded by The Higher Education Funding Council for England, The Economic and Social Research Council and Nuffield in response to the need to develop critical quantitative research skills in the undergraduate curriculum, in the humanities and social sciences. Manchester is leading the way in making these skills relevant to the workplace. More exciting, innovative internship projects are expected to take place in summer 2016.